THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Syrian Jewish Community in the U.S. Is Closely Knit and Strictly Traditional between Roughly equivalent to ferences and the Ashkenazi kidush, Sephardim Howard Eisenberg, con- the sebit "is a feast in Ashkenazim in Passover tributing editor to "Jewish which the hostess ignores practices. Eisenberg cited three Living, traced the growth prudent estimates of the of the prosperous Syrian number of people ex- examples. Sephardim eat Jewish community in the pected to attend and in- rice. Instead of hiding the U.S., and asserted that stead prepares enough afikoman, they take half of mixed marriage is practi- food for the Israeli the middle matza, wrap it in a cloth and sling it over a army. ,, cally unknown." shoulder, "explaining that Not only is marriage out Eisenberg traced the be- of the faith rare, but so Is ginnings' of the community this is how our ancestors marriage to non-Syrian to Joseph Nehmad who, Jews. Eisenberg reported reacting to the decline of his – Cat at a recent Deal, N.J. tobacco farms and trading ,,niversary party, out of coman, pawned his wife's L some 40 couples, two jewels and, in 1900, became spouses were of European the first Syrian Jew to mig- Jewish stock." Deal has a rate to the United States. large Syrian Jewish coin-_ He became a peddler and, in munity. little more than a year on Syrian-born Rabbi Isaac Manhattan's Lower East Dwek, who came to the Side, he made enough United States in 1960 at age money to redeem his wife's 13, said "some might call it jewelry and pay his family's clannishness" but em- passage to America. phasized that "we are a Other Syrian Sephardim minority within a minority" followed and whenever and that "unless we stick Nehmad learned that an- together and maintain a .other Syrian Jew had ar- coherent community, we rived at Ellis Island, he sent shall lose our customs.'al- his oldest son to guide the together." newcomer, helped him find Eisenberg reported a place to live, and gave him that the Syrian Jewish a suitcase full of merchan- family lavishes love and dise and, the next day, the the good things of life on new arrival was in business its children "but the pa- as a peddler." rental hand is firm in As the Syrian community legislating dating laws. expanded, it slipped over meet girl but in- Boy can into Brooklyn's Ben- i violate is the community sonhurst section, and fol- rule that he cannot 'take lowed the subway to Ocean her out' until her 16th Parkway where Syrian birthday. Not even then, say some parents, if he Jewish culture and religion doesn'thappen to be Sy- flourished. The largest Sy- rian Jewish settlement, rian." some 25,000, is now in the He said "boy-girl house Bensonhurst-Flatbush sec- parties are okay before that tion of Brooklyn. age but they are carefully From the Ocean Park- chaperoned. way site, some of the Sy- The Syrian Jewish com- rian Jews moved 75 miles munity in Deal, he reported, to New Jersey's Bradley is essentially synagogue- . Beach. Later, Syrian oriented, "orbiting daily as Jews crossed to the other _ well as on the Sabbath side of Asbury Park and around its handsome but "settled into the big old unostentatious dark brick Roaring '20s society (12 floor-to-ceiling windows homes of Deal described representing the 12 tribes) in F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise'." synagogue." In only 10 years, accord- Cooperation is close with ing to Eisenberg, the San Syrian three other Jewish population of Deal synagogues, all Syrian- rose to i include 450 families, Sephardic, which have de- roughly 80 percent of Deal's veloped in West Deal, Elbe- residents. Links between ron and Long Branch. There Deal and the "mother com- is a full synagogue every munity" around Ocean Sabbath. Parkway "remain strong." Syrians love pa'rties of Some families maintain all kinds and they are homes in both places and re- often synagogue-related, turn to Brooklyn now and said Eisenberg. An an- then as though "going home niversary or a birthday, for the weekend." A Syrian grocery called :or example, will be Sesame" now arked by a "sebit" at "Open home after Sabbath supplies all the grape morning services.. leaves, "fila" leaves and pita that money can buy. There also two butcher shops,. Graveg- Daubbed are a deli-restaurant, a bagelry ROME (JTA) — Swas- ("an Ashkenazi break- tikas and slogans were through") and an ice cream found splashed in blue paint shop which is also under on more than 50 Jewish rabbinical supervision. Holiday customs differ gravestones in the Leghorn so sharply that Deal's • Jewish Cemetery last week. marched Hillel Day School, which Protesters through the center of the has 400 children this city and speeches denounc- year, adding 100 an- ing the vandalism were de- nually, issued its livered by the mayor of teachers — most of them Leghorn and the city's chief Ashkenazi rabbis — a two-page . list of the dif- rabbi. By BEN GALLOB (Copyright 1979, JTA, Inc.) 4 4 • • . . We Make Our Own Glasses carried matza when they left Egypt." _Sephardic charoset uses "millenium-old recipe with dates (a mud- colored reminder of the materials used in making bricks) instead of apples." Eisenberg reported that 99 percent of the community's homes sell their hametz be- fore Passover. * ± 2, a% Friday, November 30, 1919 21 it la, HEADQUARTERS FOR LATEST DOMESTIC AND IMPORTED FRAME FASHIONS • PRESCRIPTIONS FOR GLASSES ACCURATELY FILLED • DESIGNER FRAMES • Reasonably Priced • Immediate Repair ROSEN OPTICAL SERVICE 13720 W. 9 MILE nr. COOLIDGE ll 7-5068 OAK PARK, MICH. Mon.-Fri. 9:30-6 Sat. 'til 5 Closed Wednesday ' s ; 4 r: 'IP, Ir•